


all i know is a new found grace

by kathillards



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Megaforce
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 13:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5249624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/pseuds/kathillards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake navigates an ice rink, mistletoe, Christmas music, and the ups and downs of having feelings for a girl who is definitely off-limits according to the rules of breaking up with your ex-girlfriend. —- JakeEmma</p>
            </blockquote>





	all i know is a new found grace

**all i know is a new found grace**

_so dust off your highest hopes_   
_all i know is pouring rain and everything has changed_   
_all i know is a new found grace_   
_all my days i'll know your face_   
_all i know since yesterday is everything has changed_

— taylor swift, everything has changed

-:-

It’s Emma’s idea for them to go to the outdoor ice rink across the street from the mall, because she’s Emma and she revels in forcing them all to do cheesy group things that they’ll all pretend to hate but go along with anyway to make her happy. Jake isn’t thrilled, mainly because he walks better on solid ground than ice, but Emma wouldn’t let him escape, so here he is.

“Come _on_ , Jake, where are your killer dance moves?” Emma asks, appearing at his side out of nowhere – he hates how fast she is on ice; it makes it way harder to avoid her – and tugging at his hand to get him away from the railing. “I _know_ you know how to ice skate.”

He makes a face at her. “It’s been, like, three years, come on. I’m gonna fall.”

“You are _not_ ,” she assures him, giving up on pulling him away and instead drawing closer so he can hear her over the pounding music. “Look, even Troy’s having fun!”

Jake follows her pointing finger across the rink to where Troy is spinning Gia around, railing-free and laughing. His scowl deepens. “That’s because Troy’s a fucking show off.”

“No, that’s because _you’re_ a scaredy-cat,” Emma huffs, poking him in the chest. Even through his winter coat, he can feel her indignation. “Noah and Orion – ”

“Yes, yes, I know, I’m a buzzkill and everyone’s having fun,” he interrupts, preferring not to have to look at Noah kindly and easily teaching Orion how to walk on ice. “Thanks for the memo.”

Emma frowns up at him in that uncomfortably thoughtful way she does when she’s analyzing somebody. Jake shifts under her gaze, pressing up further into the wall of the ice rink, though it doesn’t put any distance between them. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of bright yellow – Gia’s coat, her scarf, her hair fluttering – and Troy’s matching red, and tries not to wince.

“Is this about Gia?” Emma asks, voice soft, her hand on his chest flattening down so her palm is pressed to his heart even across the material of his black jacket. “You know she and Troy are just – ”

“Believe it or not, not everything I feel is about Gia,” Jake says, more harshly than he had intended, maybe because her words sting more than they should. Emma’s face falls, and he feels himself softening immediately. “I’m sorry – I just – I’m in a bad mood, I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

Emma tilts her head, curls falling over her shoulder. “I know,” she says, kindly as ever. “I don’t blame you. If you want to go home, I understand.”

Jake swallows. Ten feet away, Troy spins Gia and dips her low, her laughter bright and dazzling, her hair brushing the ice on the floor. Something inside him spins, stutters, stops. He looks back at Emma, the warmth of her hand gone from his chest, more space between them now than he wanted.

His body moves before his brain can finish debating with itself, reaching out and catching her hands in his, green gloves over pink. “And disappoint you?” he asks, rueful.

Emma’s eyes light up, her whole face brightening. He kind of hates how much better he feels just looking at her smile. “One round?” she beams, curling her hand around his and tugging gently.

Jake lets himself go with her, stumbling a little over the ice, but she keeps him steady at her side. “Just one,” he allows, even though he knows how easy it’ll be for her to talk him into more. “Just you.”

He feels Gia’s gaze on his back, but he doesn’t let himself look. _Emma_ , he thinks, _do this for Emma. You can deal with your unresolved feelings for your ex-girlfriend when you’re done and home and far away from everyone_.

Noah catches his eye and grins encouragingly at him. It helps, a little.

The song shifts to a new one right as he and Emma end up at the center of the ice rink, his hand clutching hers for balance. Something obnoxiously Christmas-themed and peppy blares over the speakers, making the floor vibrate. Jake nearly falls, but Emma catches him in time.

“If I bring you down with me, just remember it’s your fault for dragging me to this place,” he warns her as she laughs, swinging their hands and almost sending him careening wildly sideways again.

“I’ll take that risk,” she grins at him. “You look cute all disgruntled.”

He ignores the flush of the compliment, the way his stomach somersaults. “You know you don’t have to use SAT words anymore, you already got into college.”

“Maybe I use them to annoy you,” she suggests. Jake rolls his eyes and nudges her shoulder with his in offense. Emma giggles and goes quiet with a hum to the tune of the song as they slowly make their way around the rink. He’s almost gotten used to the feeling of skating on ice, Emma’s hand in his, her body comforting at his side, when they meet up with Troy and Gia on the other side.

“You guys look like you’re having fun,” Troy notes, raising an eyebrow at them. Jake feels almost guilty until he remembers he has nothing to feel guilty about – certainly, ice-skating with Emma isn’t against the nebulous and delicate rules the group has implicitly imposed after the break-up. But the way Gia is looking at the two of them, it’s making his heart do that stuttery thing again.

He’s starting to think maybe it has less to do with Gia than he thought.

“I talked Jake into one go-around of the rink before he ditches us for solid ground,” Emma explains, shooting Troy and Gia a smile. Jake’s hand tightens around hers without him even really noticing. “Did you guys wanna go have dinner after this?”

“I’m in the mood for Italian,” Gia says amiably, crossing her arms, the yellow of her coat stark against her black dress beneath it. Jake spares a minute to let his mind wander down _that_ particular road before pulling himself back together. He doesn’t know if Gia knows, but she’s looking at him like maybe she’s thinking about the same thing.

“I actually could go for Chinese,” he can’t resist saying, and he can feel it – that awkward beat, the way his words linger in the air, how Troy and Emma exchange careful glances, debating how to tiptoe around the subject, the messy, uncomfortable subject of _Jake-and-Gia_ – and then Gia glances away from him.

Emma bites her lip. He feels a sting of guilt for putting her in that place, putting her between them, opens his mouth to fix his mess, but Troy beats him to the punch.

“How about we go to CPK? They make a killer kung pao sauce _and_ they have great pizza,” Troy suggests easily, swinging an arm around Emma’s shoulders and squeezing. She smiles gratefully at him; Jake’s heart turns upside down again.

“Works for me,” Gia says, darting one last look at Jake over her shoulder as she turns to skate away, her eyes bright and sharp and jade green in the winter-blue lights of the rink. “Don’t hurt Emma.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he shoots back, her words striking him oddly, watching her and Troy head off to meet up with Noah and Orion, her arm pressing up against his, Troy ducking his head to murmur something in her ear, his hair dark next to her light blonde curls –

He’s driving himself crazy. Emma’s let go of his hand, skated up a bit further ahead, and he hadn’t noticed. It takes him a few to catch up to her properly, winding around other skaters and thankfully managing not to fall before he reaches her.

“Emma – ” he begins to say, wanting to apologize, to explain, but she shakes her head, spinning to face him, too fast for him, too graceful on the ice for him to keep up. He nearly trips backwards, catching himself with a hand on the railing, his heart doing jumping jacks as he stares at her.

“You guys have to stop this,” she hisses at him, the urgency of her words a stark contrast to the easy hum of chatter and music all around them. “I know the break-up was messy, but this is way too much tension for four months later, Jake.”

He swallows hard, his stomach churning. “I’m _sorry_ things can’t be as picture-perfect as they were when we were superheroes,” he retorts, hating himself a little for the way she recoils. “I’m sorry I’m not as good a person anymore.”

“You think that’s what this is?” Emma demands, stepping dangerously closer, her breath coming out in fog between their faces. “That I want you to go back to the way you used to be?”

“I think it would help you with your – your yearbook photograph memories and pretending we’re not all drifting apart, yeah,” Jake says, shrugging, carefully careless, though his heart is pounding in his eardrums. “Admit it, you liked me better when I was just some guy with a crush trying to impress her.”

“I like you _now_ ,” Emma insists, not backing down, not drawing away. He envies her stubbornness, her ability to keep staring him down even when he knows – and she knows – that he’s doing everything in his power to push her away. It’d be so easy to do, if only she would let him. “Is this really about me?”

_Of course it’s not._ His gaze slides of its own accord over to where the other four are skating, Gia glued to Troy’s side, her hand laced through his arm, laughing at something Orion has said. Noah is the only one who notices him looking, offering him a sympathetic smile, although he’s certain Gia can feel him watching her.

Before he can say anything, a girl passes them by with a giggle, pointing upwards at the top of the open doorway they’d somehow ended up under that leads out to the benches around the rink. Jake follows where she’s pointing and finds a sprig of mistletoe dangling above him and Emma. His stomach starts doing a gymnastics routine.

“Now you guys have to kiss!” the girl sing-songs – he doesn’t know her name, but he’s pretty sure she’s in his math class, which means no matter what he does, it’ll end up in the school rumor mill somehow. A gaggle of her friends, boys and girls both, all from school, start laughing at them; when he looks back at Emma, she’s determinedly ignoring them.

“Jake,” she sighs, her hands curling around the edges of her snowflake-patterned pink scarf, the action more nervous than he would have expected from Emma. “Have you ever thought maybe she’s flirting with Troy because she misses having you around?”

He has, as a matter of fact. “I think she misses having a boyfriend,” he says carefully, looking over at them again. Troy has an arm around her waist, Gia giggling as she leans in to whisper in his ear, a smile dimpling his cheeks at whatever she’s saying. “Don’t know if it’s really me she misses.”

Emma is too close when he glances back at her, his whole body jumping, tensing, hyper-aware of her every movement, every flutter of her eyelashes, every flip of a curl, the way she’s tugging anxiously on her scarf, how she draws her coat tighter around her body, the pink fabric pulling over her curves, her legs long and slender in white tights beneath, the top of her ice skates bumping lightly against his own.

“You said you still liked me?” he asks, ignoring their classmates’ chants of ‘ _Kiss, kiss, kiss!_ ’ in the background, trying to calm his heartbeat. He doesn’t know where he’s going with this, doesn’t know why he can’t focus on anything other than her, doesn’t know why the mistletoe above him is itching at his mind, why her presence is making his pulse race, warmth flushing his body despite the quiet chill of the rink.

“Of course I still like you,” she says, voice soft and earnest. He can hear Gia’s laugh in the background, mingled with the others, can see her and Troy – red and yellow, bright colors, warm colors, matching colors – vivid at the corner of his eyes.

Jake can hardly hear himself think when he asks Emma, “The same way?” He doesn’t know what he means, doesn’t know if she’ll know, thinks he means something like _as a friend, as a teammate, as your best friend’s boyfriend_ , something like _the same way you used to when we were better at being good people_.

Emma runs her tongue over her lips, the motion light and fleeting, but her mouth looks pinker, wetter, more inviting now. He stamps down on the urge. “I know you think I’m avoiding the fact that we’re growing up, that we’re gonna be leaving soon, but – ”

“ _Emma_ ,” he sighs, reaching out and taking her hands, gently loosening her grip on her scarf so he can twine his fingers with hers. “I was being a jerk.” It’s easier, somehow, to say this now that his world has narrowed in on Emma instead of including the voices and laughter of Gia and Troy and everyone else just a few feet away. They’re watching, he knows they’re watching, but it matters less than making sure Emma knows what he means.

She smiles a little. “I know. You’re not wrong, though.” He hates how she looks, lost and lonely and sad. His hands ache with the effort of not pulling her in for a hug. “It’s never going to be the same.”

“No,” he agrees, gaze darting sideways again. This time, he catches Gia’s eye properly, and her hands drop down from Troy as she looks at him, her teeth digging into her bottom lip, her fingers fiddling with her bracelets. He used to love when she did that, her nervous habits, every inch of her that he’d gotten to explore, when she’d let him kiss away the butterflies, when he’d loved her the same way.

Jake looks back at Emma, thinking about kissing and butterflies and the mistletoe above his head, about how much things have changed in four months, about the way Emma looks in the soft silver-blue lights, with her cheeks flushed pink and her lips rose-glossed, her hands so very small in his. The days he’d spent with Gia seem very far away.

“We should move,” she breathes, because people are starting to get impatient that they’re still standing there, because Troy and Gia and Noah and Orion are still surreptitiously watching them, because he can’t think about anything except kissing her, because he wants to fix things and he doesn’t know how –

It’s Gia’s voice that rocks through the haze in his mind, upbeat and fondly exasperated, “Just kiss already!”

Emma’s eyes widen, but he’s moving before he has a chance to talk himself out of it, before he can convince himself that he just hallucinated Gia’s blessing or the way Emma keeps looking at his lips, before he can decide this is the worst of all his bad ideas and never touch her again –

She tastes like cherry cola, sugary soft and sweet, melting into his arms as he kisses her. His hands slide up, fumbling along her jawline, clumsy from the cold and his gloves, till he cups her face and draws her in deeper. It’s wet and messy, lips and tongues mashing awkwardly together, but when she pulls back with a giggle, he still feels all warm and dizzy, a helpless smile playing on his lips.

People are cheering. It takes him a moment to notice this, his head still buzzing from the kiss, but when he glances over, Noah is clapping with that amused, knowing smirk on his face that means Jake is in for a serious round of questioning later, and Orion looks mildly bemused at why everyone is making so much noise, though he’s smiling at both of them, and Troy whistles at them, which does nothing to help the heat on his cheeks, and Gia –

Gia smiles at him, a little wistfully, a little ruefully, and ducks her head instead of holding his gaze. His stomach flips upside down; he’s about to jump away from Emma when Gia skates over towards them, casually catching Emma’s hand and squeezing it.

“Come on,” she says with a laugh, brushing her hair out of her face with her other hand. “If you two are done with the show, we should head to CPK before it closes.”

Jake laughs, something inside his chest untangling, and pulls off his beanie to run a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I’m kinda craving Italian now,” he admits, watching her carefully.

Gia’s face lightens with a smile. “Knew you’d come around,” she teases, and tugs on Emma’s hand, pulling her over the threshold so she can lean in and whisper something to her once they’re out of his earshot. Emma giggles at whatever it is Gia says, her cheeks turning pinker, and she darts a quick glance back at him as she laughs.

Jake feels warm, and warmer still as the other three join him at the doorway, Noah clapping his arm supportively as they all head out of the ice rink and towards the bench with their stuff. Orion elbows him when the girls start giggling again, as if he doesn’t already know they’re talking about him.

“Hey, man,” Troy says quietly as the four of them switch from skates to shoes a distance away from the girls, “I’m sorry if I – you know – I really shouldn’t have been – ”

Jake shakes his head as Troy breaks off, looking flustered. “No, dude, don’t worry about it. I think I was – ” He pauses, wets his lips, looking over at Emma as she bends over to untie her skates. “I think I was putting some of my own issues on you.”

“No kidding,” Troy says, following his gaze with an amused snort. Jake flushes and shoves him, and he laughs. “Really, though, are you guys – you and Gia, are you – ?” His question trails off awkwardly as Gia glances up and catches them looking at her, her eyebrows rising, a playful smile appearing on her face.

Jake glances at Troy, notes the look on his face, and then back at Gia. “I don’t know,” he admits, bowing his head over his skates. “I think – I think we could be. Or we will be. Maybe.”

Noah appears at his other side, having already finished tying his shoes. “How was the kiss?” he asks, effortlessly switching topics back just to make Jake blush. Sometimes, he really hates his best friend. “Though I think the look on your face says it all…”

“Shut _up_ ,” Jake sighs, shoving his shoulder into Noah’s, sending all three of the other boys into fits of laughter. “I’m not telling you guys shit, you’re just gonna make fun of me.”

“What are best friends for?” Noah grins as they all begin walking behind the girls out to the parking lot, dropping off their skates at the check-in on the way. Emma tosses him a look over her shoulder, smiling, her arm linked in Gia’s, everything the way it used to be, even if a little flipped upside down and switched around. Jake smiles back, ignoring Orion’s teasing nudge.

“You gotta at least tell us if you used tongue,” Troy says, maybe a bit too loud, because Emma turns around and throws something at him, too fast and hard for Jake to see what it is, but it bounces off Troy’s chest and leaves him wincing in the middle of the path.

Jake pats his arm mock-sympathetically as he passes him. “You deserved that.” Troy makes a face at him, but can’t argue.

“Come on, boys,” Gia calls over her shoulder, rolling her eyes dramatically at the four of them. “Let’s leave the making fun part for dinner, shall we?” Emma shoves her, laughing, and Gia adds in her direction with a wicked grin, “Unless you two would prefer making out?”

“ _Oooh_ ,” Orion whistles, a move that Jake is going to make Troy regret teaching him, right after he stops blushing. Emma stares at Gia in outrage, but Gia only smiles innocently, unwinding her arm from Emma’s, and pushes her gently backwards towards Jake.

“Why don’t you guys take my car?” Noah suggests with a smirk, tossing Jake his keys unceremoniously and making him fumble to catch them. “Just don’t get too sidetracked. And no sex in the backseat.”

Jake gapes at him. “I am going to _kill you_ – ”

“Meet you guys at CPK,” Gia interrupts airily before he can finish his threat to Noah’s bodily autonomy, quickly opening the passenger seat door to Troy’s car and ducking in so Emma can’t do anything to her either. Troy shrugs at the two of them, grinning, and Orion salutes them before he and Noah slide into the backseat.

“Boy, they are really riding this into the ground, aren’t they?” Emma says, rolling her eyes as she turns to walk towards where Noah’s car is parked. Jake follows her after a moment of letting his brain catch up to reality. “Think they’re ever gonna let us live this down?”

“Let’s be real, Troy’s just glad he didn’t break first,” Jake grumbles half-heartedly, though he smiles when she turns to look at him, nudging her shoulder. “You saw him with Gia.”

Emma smiles back, eyeing him a little uncertainly. “So… you’re okay?”

He stops at the passenger side of Noah’s car, shrugging as he plays with the keys. “She wouldn’t have told us to kiss if she didn’t want to feel better about moving on.”

She raises an eyebrow, leaning against the car door. “Is that what you’re doing? Moving on?” He doesn’t know if he’s imagining the way her voice rises slightly, a note of hopefulness in the question. His heart pirouettes in his chest.

“I dunno,” he admits, grinning helplessly at her. “Is it bad? You’re her best friend, if you think this is a bad idea – ”

Emma interrupts, “I think that depends on what _this_ is.”

Jake looks down at her, backed up into the car door with the wind dancing in her curls, her cheeks reddened from the chill, the sunset painting her in golds and pinks. She’s holding her breath, he can tell, biting down on her lower lip, her body shivering. Instinct moves him closer, sends his head tipping forward till their noses brush, foreheads touching, her eyelashes fluttering over his cheeks.

“Well,” he murmurs, watching his breath ghost in a fog across her face, smiling when she giggles, adorably nervous, “I think Noah only told us not to have _sex_ in his backseat.”

Her lips part, maybe in surprise, maybe in invitation, he’s not sure, but he takes the offer anyway, closing the distance and kissing her, slow and soft, not wanting to rush this. Emma sucks in a breath, sliding her hands up his arms and winding them around his neck, pulling him closer, letting him tease his tongue over her lips. Her body is warm under his hands, even through the layers of clothing, arching at his touch, pressing them flush against each other. He feels dizzy again, his head fuzzy, skin warm, heart dancing, like maybe this is even better than the first kiss.

She pushes him away gently, not too far, keeping a hand curled into his shirt, their faces no more than a breath apart, fighting a smile unsuccessfully. Jake feels butterflies bubbling up inside him, mingled heat and delight, a thousand new sensations unfurling everywhere around his body.

“We should, uh,” Emma coughs, her tongue darting out to wet her lips, tantalizing in how close it is to him, “we should talk about this? Maybe?”

“Mm,” Jake says, angling his head to steal a quick kiss, surprising a giggle out of her. “Maybe we could do it in the backseat?”

Emma wavers for a moment like she wants desperately to have some self-control and tell him they can’t have sex in Noah’s backseat, but Jake grins imploringly at her, and she practically melts. “Fine, but if we’re too late for dinner, they will _really_ never let us live this down.”

Jake ducks his head to press kisses into her neck, keeping his touch soft and feather-light, teasing a gasp from her mouth. “Fifteen minutes late,” he assures her, maneuvering an arm around her to open up the side door. “Max.”

(They end up being more like twenty-five minutes late, and even though Noah swears he’ll be paying for his car washing bills, he thinks it’s kind of worth it for the way Emma looks when they’re finished, with her hair tousled and lips bruised pink and cheeks flushed.)

(He almost writes that girl from math class a thank you note.)


End file.
